2807'12

Saturday, July 28, 2012

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This week was such an eventful week. 
Learnt so much, and most of all, got closer to the people I love. 


Striping'12 on Monday was one of the key events of this week. No, actually, this year. 
To those who are unaware, Striping is a formal ceremony we have in Guides to induct selected Guides into their new positions for the year ahead and it's when the graduating batch of Guides officially step down. 

Striping has always been an emotional occasion for me, and this year was no different. In fact, this year is probably going to be the one that I remember the most. Last year, I was thoroughly surprised with the position I was given - that of a Quarter Mistress - but I guess I can say quite confidently that I've done my job as a QM pretty well this past year and I'm so glad to be passing the position on. Personally, I thought it felt really good putting on the stripes to the next batch of Guides taking over our positions - it felt like we were growing up and well, that's a milestone.

Congrats, new QMs! (:
Gwendolyn, Stella and Vanessa, good luck on your journey and make it a great one!

To be honest, I never did expect to be transferred out of my Patrol and I never did expect to get the position of Patrol Leader due to my various commitments and was okay with that because I wanted to let my batchmates take on leadership roles because they do deserve it. 
Well, it was a surprise that I got what I never expected. 

When they called my name as a second coy Patrol Leader, I was definitely unprepared and didn't even know what patrol I was going to be PL for. But as it slowly sunk in, I feel really fortunate to be given this opportunity to step up as my last year as a Guide in 2013. 02Ixora, thank you for welcoming me in and I'll do my best to make you guys love Guides like I do.

And 03Mynah (Cheryl not pictured!), 
Thank you for being so nice and welcoming to me in my first three years as a Guide from a recruit all the way till now. It's definitely difficult to leave this patrol but I'm sure you'll be in good hands of your new PL, Nicole! 
Thank you Rain, Chunhui and Cheryl for being such wonderful 03Mynah Patrol Leaders and guiding me along under your beautiful wings. I hope to take the spirit you guys have imparted to me to my new patrol (:

After Striping, it was Farewell performances. 
Our batch has a reputation (or so we think) for being the batch that is always the least prepared when it comes to such performances but this year, being the batch that is stepping up and taking over the CCA, we decided that we needed to have more substance to thank the seniors for everything they have done for us and also to show the junior "hey you guys are in good hands, don't worry!"  Therefore, we started planning our performance pretty early and stayed back pretty often after Guides sessions to practice it. 

Extremely proud of how everything turned out, the speech at the start and the dance was close to perfect (': It's really surreal to see how my batch has grown and how we're really starting to take this seriously (whoops, perhaps a tad late, but still did nevertheless). 


Thank you Batch'12 for being such wonderful wonderful seniors, 
13atch, let's go and make Guides'13 a beautiful CCA and be wonderful seniors. 
Let's support our newly elected Company Leaders, Minyie, Mae and Ailica because they definitely deserve it and I'm sure they have so much they want to do and will lead Guides to greater heights, together with us. 

T'was an emotional and teary Striping'12, yet heartwarming and beautiful all the same.

That aside, as you guys would have known from my previous post, I was rather busy this week, having to help out at my uncle's wake till really late at night and by the time I got home it was usually later than 11pm and I would be really tired from doing so much and would crash without doing any work at all. 
The Lord of the Flies play I went for on Thursday night was definitely a great breather amidst all the lethargy I was feeling although it added on to me staying up late as the play was from 8pm to 10pm and by the time I got home, it was also extremely late.

After House Capts meeting and PB GM, I went for dinner with Phionna, Shermaine and Nat at Plaza Sing before making our way with Swan, who joined us later to the DBS Arts Centre to catch the the play. None of us really knew how to get there so we relied extremely heavily on Google Maps, which was actually rather trustworthy and brought us to the right place so that was great. 

Waiting insanely long for the bus-we'd-thought-would-never-come but eventually came. 

Getting a lil' lost, looking a lil' drunk

We studied "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding during Literature in the first semester and it's one of the books which I thoroughly enjoyed as it really shows the other side of human nature - the inner salvage within all of us and I thought I could relate pretty well with the protagonist, Ralph, of which I based my Literature AA on which I was quite happy with. So, this play was something I was really looking forward to throughout the entire week.

In the centre, outside the theatre!

This play adaptation is by 'the young co.' which is a division of The Singapore Repertory Theatre, probably the youth wing or something like that. The set was simple and I really liked the rawness of the entire play - there were no microphones and all that tech-y stuff, just brilliant acting and a simple set. I personally thought that the actors were really amazing, their acting skills are top notch. I especially liked Andrew Marko's portrayal of Piggy, it's probably the most accurate one and he acts really naturally. I personally thought Simon's character and Ralph's character were a little bit off but perhaps they wanted to give Golding's story a little twist. The acting was extremely good though. 

Nat, Phion and myself with the simple looking set that served it's function really well. 

Although the actors did a wonderful job, I kind of felt that the way they presented the entire story was a little choppy and not very accurate to what Golding was trying to put across. To be honest, if I had never read the book, I would probably just have a vague idea of what was really going on throughout the entire duration of the play but I would thoroughly enjoy the action and drama. The theme of savagery and human nature was not very clear to the audience, and to me it was a bit like they were just trying to go through the storyline without much thought to the themes related to the plot. 

Still really enjoyed myself, great job everyone behind the staging of this play! (:

After the play ended, the actors were outside mingling and we took the opportunity for a photograph with Ethan Chia, the actor who played Ralph!


Managed to get one with Andrew Marko, the actor who played Piggy too! (:





Thursday was a goooooood day (':  

My life is getting crazier and crazier every day oh gosh please let me survive

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2407'12

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

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I have never really gotten used to saying goodbye - I'm just really more of a 'hello' person, but sometimes 'goodbye's are inevitable. 

Guides' Striping '12 happened yesterday. 
I have so much to write about that emotional occasion but for today, that will wait. 
Even though there's SA tomorrow and I have not studied for it at all, I'd really just like to take this time to reflect and think about certain mindsets I have to life. Or rather, what comes after life and -nope, not afterlife but - death. 

I realized that I've never ever dealt with the loss of a close loved one. Of course I have known people who very unfortunately passed away but I'm one of the fortunate few who grew up with all my grandparents except my paternal grandfather, who passed away before I was conscious of what was going on around me. Recently though, especially this year, many friends around me have lost people whom they held close to. This year, death has been one of the most pertinent thoughts that I've been thinking about. Today, my uncle - my dad's second brother - passed away.

I wouldn't say that I'm exceptionally close to this uncle of mine but his passing came as a shock to me. It is my first time knowing that someone this close to me has moved on to somewhere else. To be honest, I didn't know how to react at all - I guess what immediately followed after my dad broke the news to me as I was ignorantly eating dinner were flashbacks of my uncle. 

He was probably the person I knew with the most complicated life story - his life was definitely not an easy one - I have a cousin whom I've never ever seen before and my aunt has diabetes and has as a result lost sight in her eyes. I truly admire him for everything he has done for his family and the thing about him is that every time I saw him, he would remain cheerful and approachable to this niece of his. He was also definitely one of the best cooks I've ever known, really. As most of you probably know, I am probably the pickiest eater ever and I never eat vegetables but in his dishes, everything would be gobbled down by me. 

We never truly appreciate someone till they are gone, really.
Life is so unpredictable - my uncle has never been one who experienced any health problems, he has always appeared really strong and fit and he isn't very old either. 
Thank you for everything, di peh (': I sincerely hope you're well up there. 

Dealing with death takes so much courage. 
Death is such an abstract concept - I can never fathom why everyone needs to go through this process. 

Through this, I've seen how strong my Dad is. My uncle's my dad's brother and although I can tell that my Dad is deeply affected by this sudden loss of his family, he seems to be putting up a front so that I won't be emotionally affected. I really hope that he won't do this because it might just make him feel worse. To be honest, I think that the mindset my Dad has about death is really amazing. He always believes that it's fate and there's really nothing you can do about it - you just have to celebrate the person for the life that he has lived and not the person's passing and the life that he has left. 


Thank you for today. 
I've learnt so much.

Oh and to everyone reading this, I'm fine and there's really no need to comfort me or bring up the topic of the passing of my uncle because I'm emotionally stable and perfectly perfectly alright, thank you (: 
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2107'12

Saturday, July 21, 2012

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Peter Pan dreams aside, this week has been amazing. 
One of the most memorable weeks this term, although I had imagined it to be one of the busiest/ craziest ones. There were so many complications and clashing schedules that I never thought I would be able to fix but I'm so fortunate everything fell into place. 

So here's how my week went:
Monday - Literature Workshop!
Tuesday - Chinese Dough Modelling Workshop (to make up for the excursion that I would be missing on Wednesday)
Wednesday - Philosophy COI
Thursday - Guides! 
Friday - Swim Carn (which did I mention, was amazing?) 

In a nutshell, the lit workshop was a bore, didn't really take home anything and it's really quite ridiculous to expect us to write a poem on the spot in half an hour, in a classroom environment, which is definitely not the best place for creative / inspirational juices. My poem turned out horrendous, everything was just so literal and cringe-worthy. The workshop definitely wasn't worth missing Guides for. Oh well, it was compulsory, what can I say? Chinese Dough Modelling Workshop, organizing in conjunction with Mother Tongue fortnight in my school, was pretty fun and Philosophy COI SA went pretty well, made some friends with my fellow COI mates. 

Nowadays, Guides is always something that I look forward to every week. Didn't use to be the case, to be honest. No idea why actually. But now, after three years there, I finally realize how much this CCA means to me - I really enjoy the things we do, they are so away from what people normally do in their lives, so basic, so lovely. And doing these things with my batch makes the experience all the more amazing. I'm so proud of 13atch - how far we've come from being that bunch of little sec ones. Tomorrow, the seniors are stepping down and we are stepping up - an incredibly surreal feeling but I'm pretty sure we can handle it with ease. 

Not only in Guides, my whole batch (like the whole cohort) is stepping up. The Head Girl, PB Exco, PSB Heads, Congress Speakers, House Captains, CCA Chairs, all come from my batch. We used to be this bunch of Sec Ones in our black Orientation shirt with a medal in the front which no one really wears and now we'll be stepping up to lead the entire school soon. So. Incredibly. Fast. 

Did I mention that Swimming Carnival was a blast? 
Well, anything to do with House is more often than not an amazing experience for myself. 
Aching arms and legs right now, but all was worth it. Even prancing around in a purple swimsuit. So fortunate to have CELL, JELLO, and Waddle House Comm'12. You guys are all so amazing and you know it. 

Apologies for the lack of organization in this post - I'm just feeling so sentimental and disoriented. 

To my dear Guides 13atch, 
together. 
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1307'12

Friday, July 13, 2012

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Time is passing way too fast. 
It's scary, yet exciting all the same.

But I'm really starting to learn how to enjoy my life even when it's getting crazier. So many things have happened this week and there are so many things I have to be thankful for, such as my wonderful Moot Parliament group (':

We went to RI for an MPP Debating workshop on Wednesday, which I would say was more of a briefing rather than a workshop. Anyhow, it felt really good spending time with that weird bunch - Jac, Chris, Sam and Mel - I love love love you guys so much. It was the day of our Bill submission which kind of means that our MPP journey was soon coming to an end, apart from the Debates, and well it has been an amazing journey! 

The journey's not over yet - we are still aiming to win Best Bill (hoho) and um Debate Champs (hoho) which is quite a far fetched dream since we might not even make it to the debate rounds. But these group of people has made my RS blocks so interesting, and not something that I dread. 

From the time where some of us barely knew each other, 

to meeting our student mentors at Dunman (all sane and demure), 


walking from NUS Law School to the prata place, 



getting lost in the Botanic Gardens, 

camwhoring in NUS, 



staying up till around 3AM during our sleepover to rush our presentation, 


to getting trashed at our MPP presentations

and i can't wait spending the entire day (skipping school!!!) with you guys during debates! 

Had a relaxing dinner with them after the Debates Workshop on Wednesday - we headed to Old School Delights at Upper Thomson and the sense of nostalgia and calmness of the place really overwhelmed me - I'm proud to be a kid who played five stones. After all the drama on Tuesday, that dinner was really all I needed. Especially loved the company I was with. Headed to Salted Caramel across the street for dessert and it was good (': Took photos (of course, we're the crazy group!) but currently only have this one of Mel and myself!


Everything is happening so quickly - everything seems to be coming to an end soon.
It's time for my entire batch to step up as seniors - felt immensely proud during Guides on Friday when it was a CL nominee session. It's crazy how it seems like it was just yesterday when we were accepted into Guides as recruits and now - we're not only growing, but we've grown.

So many changes, let's just live life for the moment and hope I don't lose my sanity.
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0907'12

Monday, July 9, 2012

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My favourite quote of all time, by my favourite inspiration of all time. 

Couldn't find a tumblr-like image of this wonderful extract of one of his songs, so I made my own. Yup I took the photograph above on my own, quite proud of it actually! Painted one nail red to add a bit of colour to the photo, removed it shortly afterwards. 

There's Math and History PPA tomorrow, which I don't think I'm all that prepared for (but hey, who would say that they are prepared for any test at all?) Results will also be out tomorrow. Feeling rather nervous and apprehensive but I guess the only thing I can do is to take it as it comes along and just accept the results, whatever it may turn out to be. 

Short post, just to sum up my current feelings - can't afford to waste any more time at this crucial point.

If the world breaks my legs, I'm gon' beat it with my crutch. 
I'll stay strong, no matter what. 
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0407'12

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

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Campaigning ends today.
Here's my second campaigning video just to close this wonderful chapter of my life properly (:


I'm so grateful to everyone who has helped me in my campaign so far, I really really appreciate it and if you're from Waddle and if you're reading this, I really hope that you will lend me your support!

Thank you so much guys and this has been an amazing experience for me, whether or not I get the position (:




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0207'12

Sunday, July 1, 2012

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The past week has a been a blur, a crazy period of time where emotions were just running really wild.
I would say that it was a rather good week though, despite it being the first week of school.

So yes, one of the main events that happened last week would most undoubtedly be that House Campaigns have started. For real. It was quite a fun experience - really different from what I had expected to be. To be honest, I thought campaigning this year was going to be really draining and tiring, but it was actually quite enjoyable, especially with my always-supportive campaign team. I owe so much to them, I don't even know how to thank them properly. Really, I have the most wonderful campaign team ever, look at the stickers they designed for me!



Don't they look super duper amazing! (': And that's just one of the many many things they have sacrificed for me, especially their time! So so fortunate to have them, really! Anyway, campaigning this year has been really hardcore, especially the candidates from my batch - and I've learnt so much from it. I feel like campaigning is quite terrible in the sense that everyone has something to prove, and everyone is going all out and the school doesn't exactly see what we can do behind the scenes so essentially they will just be choosing the more popular ones, which isn't very fair. I really appreciate that the competition between Waddle candidates are really friendly and supportive, I love all of us! 

Then on Wednesday, our school actually brought my entire sec three batch to the Art Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands to view Andy Warhol's art exhibition as well as Harry Potter The Exhibition! That was a wonderful treat in the middle of the crazy first week of school. 

I don't exactly know a lot about Andy Warhol, except that he was the artist who is responsible for the very famous Campbell soup series and Marilyn Monroe's Popart paintings. His exhibition was really good, through a layman's eyes, although I would probably have enjoyed it more if we didn't have a guided tour. That being said, if there wasn't a guide with us, I probably wouldn't understand half of his works because I don't really know this guy's background. Andy Warhol was such an eccentric and interesting person - and it's really cool how an artist's life can really influence their artworks. If anyone is going to the Art Science Museum, don't just jump straight into the Potter exhibition, check out Andy Warhol's 15 Minute Eternal exhibition as well, it's quite queer and eye-opening, especially if we understand the context behind every piece. 

Then, we headed to the Harry Potter exhibition, which was of course, the highlight of the day. Everything just felt extremely magical to me - the floating words (essentially just light shining on tiny water droplets in the air) at the entrance to the merchandise shop at the end of the exhibition. I definitely would not call myself a Harry Potter fan, but I have read and watched some of the books and the movies from the series and do proudly say that I belong to the generation that grew up with the three protagonists of the series. After some people had a go sitting under the sorting hat and being sorted, we entered this room with some screens and they flashed out the important scenes from the series - from Harry, Ron and Hermione in the Hogwarts Express for the very first time, all cute and young to the final battle with Lord Voldy. It was quite amazing watching how they grew, and thinking back about our own childhoods as well, how we've grown from watching them up till now. Some serious Potterheads from my class actually teared, because it was indeed a rather emotional clip. After it ended, we turned to our right and the huge door opened, revealing a life size Hogwarts Express and lots of mist and fog, indicating that we could enter the exhibition for real. 

It was quite an amazing experience, being able to see the props and costumes used in the movie and the whole exhibition was very artfully recreated, it all felt so magical. At the end of it, there was a merchandise shop with many overpriced items, but it was definitely a Potterhead's dream come true. I had to try Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, so I got a small box for six bucks. It was quite worth it though, in my opinion, judging by the food engineering that has gone into the production of these beans. 



The crazy flavours they had in the box! Apart from the normal flavours like candyfloss and cherry, I've only dared to try the Earthworm and Grass flavours. The earthworm tasted exactly like ham with a strong weird aftertaste while the grass one actually tasted quite good, it tasted like well, grass!

Then on Saturday, we had our Guides Annual Assembly, which was sort of like a campfire where we invite Guides and Scouts from other schools, except that it doesn't have a campfire but rather just a few performances and a storyline. This year's theme was 'A Twist In Tales', which was quite cute, and I thought that I enjoyed this year's AA more than last's. 


Annual Assembly is always quite emotional - because it's the last project the batch stepping down that  year does, and this year it means even more because it's an indication that the next batch, MY batch would be stepping up in the coming year and that's something that feels extremely surreal. Time is passing way too fast but nowadays, I don't think it's that bad of a thing. I'm really feeling quite excited at the prospect of the CLs coming from my own batch. 


A really really pretty batch photo! I love you smurfs! (': 

No matter who becomes CL, I'm sure everyone will give their fullest support to the special three! We must not be the most last minute batch anymore, but rather the most amazing and most influential. 

Finally, on Sunday, met Nicole and Linette at the National Library to do our Math AA - a rather last minute job considering that our AA was due in week 2 but we finished in a few short hours, so that was good. It was extremely fun spending time with them. After that, Nicole and I went to TCC for lunch where both of us became quite broke but well, it was a good lunch for a lazy Sunday afternoon! 


My chicken mushroom pasta! 


And a heavenly cappuccino cheesecake! (': 

Nicole and I had a rather good conversation about our own lives, and how crazy it becomes, especially when we get older. We didn't know what's in store for us in future and it's just feels so insecure. I guess we should really just live life to it's fullest every single day and make the most out of it. 

Yes, so my week has been insane. 
Thank you to every single one of you who have made this week so memorable. 
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